Glass Neck, the latest record by Jungfrau is an eerie and foreboding fusion of dark psychedelia and ambient post-rock that will chill you to the marrow.

Recorded live in studio in London and later mastered by Chris Hardman of Dead Sea Apes, this release finds Jungfrau in absolute top form. In each song, the group weaves together lush blankets of cosmic electro rock like some sort of Cluster/Carlton Melton hybrid.

The record’s four songs together take your mind on an interstellar journey, and thusly must be heard together as a whole. However, if you only had time enough for just one track, then I’d highly suggest playing “I Lie All The Time.”

This enigmatic and shadowy track features some excellent doomy bass work and ghostly Pink Floyd-like slide guitar and synths, but it’s the supremely haunting vocal work of singer Hannah Grasskamp that pushes this song into the instant-classic territory. There’s something about the pace and tone of her reverb-drenched performance that is so achingly forlorn and ominous that it sounds like she’s possessed by some sort of wronged, sorrowful spirit. It’s safe to say that this track is best heard in pitch darkness.

Fitting right at home with the work of Amon Düül II and many of the groups that are currently coming out on labels like Cardinal Fuzz and Riding Easy Records, Glass Neck is definitely one of the strongest acid rock releases that I’ve heard this year.

-KH